Two major shocks pulled the two teams that had been leading all the way away from the top: Armenia lost to Israel in the open section, and the overpowering Chinese lost to Serbia in the women's section. Suddenly on this snow-covered weekend in Dresden we have Israel in the sole lead in the former and Ukraine, Poland and Serbia leading the latter section. Full illustrated report.

Round nine Open Section

The shocker was Armenia's loss to Israel, with Levon Aronian traumatically losing a rook ending to perennial Boris Gelfand. The final score was 2½:1½. Meanwhile Ukraine beat Russia, with the top three boards drawing and Alexander Morozevich losing to Zahar Efimenko. The result: Israel has taken the lead in the 38th Olympiad, with 16/19 match points, followed by Armenia and Ukraine, with 15/18 each. Behind them are China, England and Serbia, all with 14/18. Russia is in the next group of nine teams with 13/18 each.

Round nine women's section

China suffered a shock loss to Serbia (in spite of a win by Hou Yifan), while Poland defeated the US and Ukraine Romania, both by 3:1. This put three teams in the lead: Ukraine, Poland and Serbia, with 15/18 match points each. China is suddenly in the second group, together with Georgia and Armenia.